Roseville Hires Goats for Fire Safety

The City of Roseville is going to the goats. As part of the city’s effort to reduce fire risk, the city has hired a private company to bring in a herd of goats to clear firebreaks between homes and open space.

The goats can eat up to 5 percent of their body weight each day, making them effective and eco-friendly lawn mowers. On average, 100 goats can clear about 1 acre of growth per day.

The company hired for the work, Ecosystems Concepts, uses “a forced intensive livestock grazing method is employed to achieve the desired vegetation management goals,” according to a release issued by the Roseville Fire Department. The end-result of the grazing animals will be a 30-foot wide firebreak that would protect homes by destroying fuel for any potential summer fires.

To control the animals, Ecosystems Concepts deploys solar powered electrified fencing and has an employee live on-site 24 hours per day.

A brief public awareness campaign will be conducted to notify residents of that they will soon be neighbors to the hoofed herd. They will also be asked to keep their children away from the fencing, not feed the goats, and keep dogs on leashes during the grazing period.

The Roseville Fire and Parks and Recreation Departments partnered to bring the goats back for the now annual vegetation management and mitigation project.